"The Voyage for a New Writer"

     The Voyage for a New Writer

The human mind together denoted as conscious and sub-conscious gets thousands of thoughts. Of these thoughts few are important and others are transitory ideas. The important thoughts are formed when one acts or reacts to thought with emotion. Emotions are acts, experiences, views or opinions shown by an individual. Emotions start right from being in the womb, to being an infantile, adolescent or an adult, till one leaves the body. Infantile cries to grab attention and mother easily find the cause of her baby crying, these are the emotions between mother and a child. Similarly, a departed partner may have longed to meet his/ her partner is another set of emotion which an individual may convey via a song, poem or a message.

Keywords: write-up, skills, writing, passion, overcoming fear

Objective:

The objective of the present write-up is not to create mere motivation which is temporary but it is written with an objective to help the readers to pursue a carrier as a writer. This write-up will empower its readers to attain a real, tangible changed life rather than simply wishing for a change in life to happen. It will facilitate to create a belief in individuals that they can write themselves and eradicate the fear of being a writer. As in the following article, I will not speak magic but the logic behind the voyage of a new writer. So, I want my readers to keep reading till the end and not miss any points

Who can be a writer?

Orson Scott Card has quoted that, “Everybody walks past every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any” this thought helps one picture the difference between a writer and most people. To be a writer one does not need any title, like the ones who are non-working or the ones who have lost jobs due to any kind of crisis can be a writer. Further, any individual who is willing to or knowing to place, churn, elaborate, punctuate the thoughts in the correct way can be a writer. Someone having knowledge of the subject, or is ready to change the fundamental way one thinks, or is devoted to following a mentor (an individual experienced in writing) can be a writer. Someone who is willing to follow the guidelines of writing (discussed in the later part) or someone who can gather various opinions by reading, listening or watching people and is able to deliver personal opinion can attain the voyage to be a writer.

There is no magic:

It is said that each one of us is an envelope of tremendous potential and one has to work on the skill one wishes to flourish with by training oneself and practicing constantly in the same direction with consistency and perseverance to develop a skill. Practice and only practise can make one perfect. Aspects like, stars and destiny are not the answer for everything. Moreover, becoming a writer is not an overnight process. It does not happen in a few days or few weeks or neither is it a few months process. It is definitely not a pre-destined game. These days many people claim to mentor people for developing their writing skills in say a month I personally suggest one should not follow such mentors because this can make one handicap as one has to be dependent on the person where one will have to pay hefty charges to the person further, one cannot sustain in the game of writing with such a mentor-ship. Writing is a skill where one has to be devoted under the guidance of the correct mentor and being open to learning from the mentor at an individual pace by revising and understanding the pattern of revisions made. With devotion, the writing skill can get imbibed into one’s heart, which thus can never get splashed away. Just like nurturing an infantile for its transformation into an idle human-being, becoming a writer needs hard work and time.

Jane Yolen has quoted, “Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without the exercise, the muscles seize up”.

Steps to decide ones writing niche:

To start anything, one needs to select a niche, which can be a complex process. To simplify the process to choose a niche for writing the following steps can be followed:

1.         Identify one’s interest and passion: For knowing one’s interest and passion one can try new things, understand what really interests one. The kind of subjects one likes to spend ones free time on defines one’s interest. Further doing meditation can assist one to create awareness and help one realize and develop one’s potential.

2.         Identify problems one can solve: Today everyone seeks help. If one is an expert in a subject, one must think about how one’s knowledge can be of help to someone, through one’s writing.

3.         Check the thoughts or feelings: When a thought or an emotion is around one, how one act towards the thought or emotion creates an experience which can be of great value.

How to be a creative writer:

Writing must not be a copy and paste job. Simply copy-pasting job will be categorized into plagiarism. There are different types of plagiarism (https://www.bowdoin.edu/dean-of-students/judicial-board/academic-honesty-and-plagiarism/common-types-of-plagiarism.html).

To avoid plagiarism, and to be a creative writer:

1.             Write your own experience: Write after experiencing the subject.

2.         Observse others thoughts in your niche: by reading, listening or watching and then put up own views on the observed thoughts.

3.     Write being in someone else’s shoes: think how some-one else would act for a particular emotion or a thought, it implies one must practice to keep dual views on a thought.

4.     Write after different activities performed or write after experiencing different emotions: write after listening, watching or reading someone, write after meditating, or write after visiting a place, or after returning from work, or after relaxing as each mood, or each experience creates a new pattern of writing.

Dealing with the same topics:

When a writer selects his/her niche, there may be thousands of text available on the same topic but that does not really matter. Each one has their individual style, each story has different characters. Many times in school days, the class were given a topic for an essay or for speech but each student comes with their own thoughts. The essay or speech of an individual becomes different even though the topic remains the same. So, no need to worry if you have a topic or niche which is covered by many. It is your effort to put the topic differently by reading all the articles on the same topic and framing the topic as per individual experience.

Why should one write?

There is a quote: Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in a human situation – Graham Greene.

Benefits of being a writer:

1.         Writing is one’s skill-set, personal ambition. The writing allows one to build an individual image, personality or a brand. It helps one bring orderliness and gives a chance to position oneself as a different individual rather than a mediocre life. Writing can help one to live a life where every moment is truly loved and enjoyed and thus it can become one’s hobby to write and create a turning point in one’s life. All this can be suitably related to the quote by Henry Miller, “Writing is its own reward”.

2.         Writing is a channel or a media to communicate with mass. Writing allows an individual to contribute to the welfare of society by sharing one’s knowledge and experiences; thus, writing can be a tool to help or guide others. Writing can assist one to start one’s career as a speaker, trainer or coach.

            Writing is a skill which one does for oneself. Writing can help an individual to remain engaged and free one from worries that are far beyond one’s control (like having lost a job/ or having identity crisis/ or females on maternity leave or individuals who not allowed to work due to sudden disability).

 

Guideline for writing:

1. Know the language:

It is important to have the knowledge of the language that can assist in phrasing correct sentences, use suitable words and arrange the sentences in the correct order. Articulating good phrases with simple words helps the reader to understand the article easily. Placing the sentences in the correct order creates a follow or a link for the reader wherein the reader finds the interest in reading, creates meaning for a reader. For this one has to revise the write-up by self a minimum of three times for its grammar check, sentence phrase check and make use of synonyms. There are software’s available to help a writer get the grammar corrected which can aid in better writing, but most often, it is better to personally get the article checked, as there are pros and cons of the software. ‘Better is to learn the language and the grammar well’.

Note: “Frist draft is just you telling yourself the story”- Terry Pratchett, “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere”- Anne Lamott.

2. Learn to accept:

Someone better than self:

Accept the fact that there will be always someone better writer than oneself, no need to panic, if there are mistakes in your write-up. One has to keep a belief that I am the best, but also remember that there can always be someone better than self.

No one thinks the same, and there will be critics or conflicts for your thoughts in the write-up, always learn to improve by solving the critics, rather than taking them as threats and fearing to face them.

Personal opinions can be timely and can be changed with learning.

The humbleness to accept others opinions can help one improve on the mistakes done in the write-up.

Understand and accept personal Limitations associated with writing and seek help:

One must also, understand and accepts one's limitations linked with writing skills. For example, someone may be weak at grammar, or some-one may be weak at paraphrasing or one may be weak in language editing or writing despite taking classes. Once one knows ones weakness one can seek help from the experts in the area to improve on writing skill.

Take opinions:

Everyone needs help and people are always ready for giving help. Always welcome the comments, or ask for help to edit or revise the write-up which can worth, before sending the write-up to the publisher (Book/ Journal). In certain cases including writing a blog where there is no reviewer and the writer has no boundary to get the write-up published the writer must revise the article thoroughly at a personal level and by seeking help from the close by circle before publishing and be open to receive comments from the readers. One must handle the comments or revisions required in a tactful way.

3.  Keep the impetus:

To keep the impetus of writing, a writer must follow a disciplined schedule for writing which can help the writer keep with the impetus. The writer must understand the personal moods or schedule, that allows the writer to write and must follow the schedule. Also, the writer must follow other thoughts by reading; listening or watching that can help construct impetus for writing.

4. Avoid distraction:

Today social media is becoming popular and handy; time can easily fly away replying to a single message, every comment can be a cause of dopamine release and can distract one from one's target. The writer must be careful with the popping message, it is better to keep all the message alerts silent. The writer must prioritize daily work based on urgency and decide upon the times of socializing.

Further, way to avoid distraction is to be organized. Being organised means keeping only the tools that are necessary while writing.

Also, the writer must practice organizing ones thought list by maintaining a log of the write-up: as on-going write-up, completed write-up, and to begin with write-ups. Maintaining a log can help the writer to be focused and less distracted with the multiple thoughts the writer has to write-on.

5. Use tools for writing:

The tools may be a handy mobile phone, with no popping message alerts or a laptop or a physical notebook. Because possessing a handy writing tool can help one to “write what should not be forgotten”- Isabel Allende.

6. Track the time for writing:

Writing is a mysterious, never-ending process, as every-time any-one who reads a write-up can find that changes will be required to be made in the write-up. Importance of deadline can be understood by the fact that most of us got home-work during school summer vacation, however most felt it important to enjoy the vacation and do the home-work during the last weeks or days’ time. Hence, the writer must track the time for completing a write-up.

Once the writer gets to know that there is a correct mood and sufficient time, the writer must use it to write so that the write-up gets completed within a time limit.

7. Track the points to be covered in a write-up:

Any thought can have a huge number of sub-points. The more one thinks more one can elaborate a thought. Hence to be on track with the time and to be specific to the topic a writer must narrow the points to be included and elaborated in a write-up.

8. Fencing self:

Overcome the fear:

I will be able to write? Language is a problem for me. What will others think? These are a few questions that may bother a writer. Writing is a platform for reaching millions and it means one has to risk one-self to failure, defeat or even public discomfiture. Naturally, all these factors are obstacles for a writer, giving the writer a sign of danger which can make a writer transfer self in a safer precinct and lead a mediocre life by discontinuing, stifling one passion to write and questioning one's confidence. My personal note to the writers is that at a particular point, one has to apprehend that the only way one’s life is going to change is if one makes choices to bet oneself for the change and chase the dream of being a writer. It is a universal fact that even the boldest and bravest fears the darkness or a thud. But if one can break the fear and rise above the fear, the achievements in life increase. Fear is thought, each individual at a point is confused consolidation of beliefs, experiences, thoughts, emotions and one has to learn to manage these consolidations by meditation, facing them all and never giving up. However, if one still fears than one must fence one-self by not looking back again as explained in the next paragraph. 

Publish only when you are confident about your write-up: 

One must remember that a certain degree of fear is important, and one must use the fear as a tool to be perfect in writing by rechecking the article as many times as possible before publishing the article.

'Not to look back again':

The write-up is made based on the thoughts that evoked to the writer at the moment. With time the thoughts may change and hence the thoughts made earlier may not seem correct with the time. The best way to deal with this pattern of changing thoughts with time is ‘not to look back again- is a fence to move on’ it means once a write-up is written it must be permanent and one must not to peep into any kind of comments obtained on the write-up and only next write-up must spring up after the one written as add-on or amendment to the current write-up. ‘Sometimes, it is better to close one's eyes and not look back for the things that one has already written’, because some-times a write-up may not be up-to-the-mark and the comments one may receive on the write-up may be perplexing and looking back and pondering on the comments obtained on published write-up can be distracting and can cause hindrance for one to move on to the next level. It must have been your personal observation with the best seller books that you have read was having certain errors, hence better practise is to 'not look back'. And remember a quote by Sadguru, "If you have to have deep insights into your life, other peoples opinion of you should not mean anything to you".

I end my write-up using an encouraging quote, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it”- Toni Morrison

PS: I hope with this write-up I am encouraging you to be a writer. I request you to like, comment and share the write-up within your circle to inspire each one for writing.

The present topic can be elaborated further, however, keeping the interest of the readers in view the present article has been narrowed. 

Yogita Labrath.